1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cable end connector assembly, and more particularly to a cable end connector assembly having shielding means to prevent electromagnetic or radio frequency interference.
2. Description of Prior Art
Electrical connector assemblies are commonly used to connect external and internal peripheral devices to a computer for performing data transmission therebetween. The connector assembly typically employs a cable end connector assembly terminated with a transmission cable and a receptacle connector mounted on a printed circuit board of the computer and electrically connected with the cable end connector assembly. U.S. Pat. No. 6,299,487 discloses such a connector assembly with a cable end connector assembly and a receptacle connector. The cable end connector assembly includes a housing, a contact module disposed in the housing with a plurality of contacts retained therein, a shell partially insert-molded in the housing for eliminating electromagnetic interference of the contacts, and a cable with a distal end thereof electrically connecting to the contacts.
In the patent mentioned above, the contacts include signal contacts and grounding contacts. Each grounding contact has a large tail portion for receiving a grounding shield of the cable. In practice, other metal shells are provided to enclose wires of the cable with jacket being stripped off. Therefore, the data transmitting in the cable end connector and the cable is able to achieve a high reliability.
However, since the solution requires many metal shells and the grounding contacts have different configuration from the other contacts, the manufacturing and assembling process is complicated and therefore the cost of manufacture increases. Although there are many connectors with an integral shell for shielding in field, such as an electrical connector disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,016, the shell is insert-molded in the housing such that it is not able to be reworked and replaced individually when the shell is defective. Thus, the entire cable end connector assembly has to be discarded, which in turn increases overall cost.
Hence, a cable end connector assembly with simple shielding means and removable shell is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.